Tag: Yoon Suk-yeol

President Yoon has to know the Kim regime is not going to denuclearize for any amount of economic aid. However, they would happily pretend to denuclearize for economic aid like they have done in the past:

President Yoon Suk-yeol pledged Monday to swiftly improve relations with Japan based on a 1998 joint declaration between the two countries while offering to significantly rebuild North Korea’s economy if Pyongyang takes steps toward substantial denuclearization.

Yoon made the remarks in a Liberation Day speech marking 77 years since Korea’s independence from Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule. (…….)

Yoon also laid out the details of his “audacious plan” to improve North Korea’s economy in the event it takes steps to denuclearize, an offer he first made during his inauguration speech in May.

He said North Korea’s denuclearization is “essential” for sustainable peace on the peninsula, in Northeast Asia and around the world.

“The audacious initiative that I envision will significantly improve North Korea’s economy and its people’s livelihoods in stages if the North ceases the development of its nuclear program and embarks on a genuine and substantive process for denuclearization,” Yoon said.

“We will implement a large-scale food program; provide assistance for power generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure; and carry out projects to modernize ports and airports for international trade.”

Yoon also offered to help enhance North Korea’s agricultural productivity, modernize its hospitals and medical infrastructure, and implement international investment and financial support initiatives.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I don’t remember a President having their approval rating dropping this fast before:

What began as an approval rating of 52 percent in his first week in office was down to 24 percent by the first week of August, or only half of the 48.6 percent he won in votes during the election, according to Gallup Korea. 

Yoon’s personnel choices were cited as among the biggest factors behind the slide, the pollster said, as controversy erupted over Education Minister Park Soon-ae’s plan to lower the elementary school entry age to 5. Park resigned last week.

The minister was not the only person to draw fire. Yoon’s decision to abolish the first lady’s office backfired when friends and acquaintances of first lady Kim Keon-hee were found to be accompanying and assisting her on official trips, including on Yoon and Kim’s visit to Spain in June.

Economic challenges weighed heavily on the new administration as prices soared along with the interest rate and exchange rate. The COVID-19 pandemic showed no signs of abating as cases mounted with the spread of new variants, while flash floods in the capital area killed at least a dozen people and exposed deep flaws in the country’s flood control systems.

To add to the administration’s woes, the ruling People Power Party was in a constant state of turmoil that was worsened by the embarrassing disclosure of texts Yoon exchanged with the party’s floor leader in which Yoon was seen backbiting about suspended party leader Lee Jun-seok.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but if his numbers continue to decline it makes me wonder if the Korean left will try and invent some way to impeach him like they did to former President Park Geun-hye?

This is horrible that this family drowned in their own apartment:

 President Yoon Suk-yeol visited a semi-basement apartment in Seoul on Tuesday where a flash flood the previous night killed a family of three.

Yoon visited the apartment in southern Seoul after presiding over an emergency government meeting on the response to the heavy rains that have pounded the capital and central areas this week.

Eight people were reported killed and six missing in the country’s heaviest rainfall in 80 years.

According to the police, the family consisted of a woman in her 40s, her younger sister, and the sister’s teenage daughter.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

He hasn’t been President very long, but a 32.5% approval rate is definitely something for the Yoon administration to be concerned about:

President Yoon Suk-yeol’s approval rating fell to 32.5 percent, with his disapproval rating rising to nearly twofold of his approval rating, a survey showed Wednesday.

The Rnsearch poll of 1,045 voters conducted from Saturday to Tuesday showed 32.5 percent of respondents approved of the way Yoon handled state affairs while 63.5 percent gave a negative assessment.

Yoon’s approval rating, which came in at 52.5 percent four weeks earlier, has been trending lower in the past month. After falling to 42.6 percent in the same poll a week ago, it plunged 10.1 percentage points to 32.5 percent this week.

In the same period, those who were unhappy with Yoon’s performance jumped from 43 percent to 63.5 percent.

The latest poll comes amid growing concerns over the economy and political turmoil at the ruling People Power Party (PPP).

Korea has been grappling with rising inflation and global supply chain disruptions, which prompted the central bank to deliver an unprecedented 0.5 percentage point rate hike early Wednesday.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.